A Long-Awaited Date (I)

After breakfast, Bell and Hermione fled the Granger home as if escaping for their lives. Breathing in the cool morning air, it took quite a while before the heat on their faces finally subsided.

Bell had always thought his skin was thick enough. But today, he discovered that his former self had been far too full of himself.

The revolution had yet to succeed; comrades still needed to strive on...

"Bell, where are we going next? To your family's Library to read?"

Hermione turned to look at Bell, successfully earning an eye roll from him.

"What Library? What reading? We're going shopping today!"

Everything about his girlfriend was great, except that the aura of an academic genius occasionally leaking from her was rather suffocating.

Come on! It was summer vacation! And the final summer vacation of their student lives, at that. How could they waste it away in a Library?

Speaking of summer vacation, that naturally meant dates!

(Bell, who was always busier on holiday than during school, thought this with an utterly shameless face.)

"Shopping?"

Hermione tilted her head and stared at Bell for a long while before raising a hand toward his forehead.

"No fever..."

As she spoke, Hermione reached for her Wand. She intended to use her not particularly outstanding medical knowledge to give Bell a full-body examination.

After all, whenever they had gone to Hogsmeade before, Bell had often looked unwilling, and she had always had to drag him along to have fun.

Yet today, Bell had actually suggested going shopping on his own?

Hermione seriously suspected that the Elemental Lord had damaged Bell's brain earlier.

"Of course I don't have a fever. And my injuries have already healed."

Bell reached out and caught Hermione's hands, stopping her from pulling out her Wand at the slightest